How did South Africa’s struggling rail commuter network, the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa), get to where it is, requiring billions to fix its infrastructure?
It has been crippled by widespread vandalism, said to have cost an estimated R4-billion in the past few years. During level 5 of the Covid-19 lockdown last year, the commuter service was suspended, with only skeleton staff on duty. This led to further destruction of its infrastructure.
Commenting on the damage, Prasa Board chairperson Leonard Ramatlakane admitted it was a mistake to have left stations unguarded.
“We should have done something better to prevent that, but we could not see it coming,” he told the media.
How could Prasa not have seen this coming? Vandalism, theft and infrastructure damage has plagued the stations for years.
During a media train ride from Durban to uMlazi in 2019, Prasa revealed its challenges. Other than vagrants removing the railway lines, the bigger problem was the rise of informal settlements along the tracks since 2014, which prevented Prasa engineers from working on the lines.
People had invaded Prasa property and added their electrical connections. Houses were removed, but were soon replaced by others and some had built their houses on top of rail tunnels.
Prasa again admitted it had dropped the ball by not doing enough to maintain the area and had pleaded with the eThekwini Municipality to find a solution. This was not unique to Durban as land invaders have also set up residence on railway tracks in Cape Town’s Langa township.
Trade unions have appealed to Prasa chief executive Zolani Matthews to prioritise stopping the vandalism.
Until his recent appointment, Prasa did not have a permanent chief executive since the departure of Lucky Montana in 2015.
In February this year, the auditor-general called for urgent intervention to save Prasa, reporting that it achieved only 17.5% of its planned targets for the 2019/20 financial year.
Matthews said Prasa should go back to the basics of providing safe, reliable and affordable commuter rail travel.
The question, though, is: Can it?
The Star